


Razzmatazz

by ThatOneNerdThere



Category: I Don't Know How But They Found Me (Band)
Genre: Aftermath of Violence, Alternate Universe - Greek Mythology, Alternate Universe - Magic, Amnesia, Based off of the song Razzmatazz, Different lyrics are different scenes, Dimension Travel, Gen, Happy Ending, I can't tell what else to tag without spoilers, Memory Loss, Minor Description of said Violence, Some hurt/comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-30
Updated: 2020-09-30
Packaged: 2021-03-07 20:40:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 6,483
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26723782
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThatOneNerdThere/pseuds/ThatOneNerdThere
Summary: Dallon and Ryan were used to violence by this point, it wasn't anything unusual to have groups of people running after them with the intent to hurt, but they never usually get badly injured by it. Scratches and bruises? Sure, those things were small, almost inconsequential. This time... they must have made some serious slip-ups for things to end up as bad as they did. Which is why it was weird when this guy woke up on a couch with an awful pain in his head, colorful walls giving him a headache, and a man with blue hair and glowing-green eyes.~~I’ll be editing parts of this story every now and then, so if certain parts are different than before, that’s probably the reason why :P
Comments: 2
Kudos: 5





	1. Don't Hold Your Breath for Goodness Sake

Ryan ran, which was difficult to do since his friend Dallon was slung over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. 

It didn't help that his friend was taller than him, and Ryan was running away from a mob of people; all of them holding knives, pieces of pipe, wooden planks. He would want to avoid getting pummeled by them if he had to choose. 

‘Not like we weren't attacked by them already, that was the reason why Dallon was unconscious,’ Ryan had to remind himself, but he would rather not add another ‘person’ (AKA himself) to the list of things unconscious. 

He ran and ran and ran. 

He was trying to look for ways to escape, tiny keyholes that would make it easy for him to get out of there without anyone noticing. He looked down alleyways, seeing if he could make a sharp turn and get out of there as fast as possible. 

He took a deep breath, turned down the nearest alleyway, and quickly opened his portal. He jumped in and closed it as fast as possible. 

It took a few seconds of blurring colors and the sound of rushing wind until he got to his house. The distance between it and the Earth was grand, so teleportation wasn't instantaneous. 

He walked up to the house, throwing the door open. As he smelt the cinnamon and lavender scented air of his house, a feeling of relief flooded him; Reflected by the streaks of pink that glowed across the (at the moment) blue walls of the house, sprouting directly from the doorframe. 

He closed the door and made his way in. The front room was always a bit dimmer than the rest of the house, but the veins of pink light echoing throughout the room lightened it up in there. 

Ryan walked into the living room, just to the left of the front room, and set Dallon down onto the couch. The latter looked so beaten up, bruises littered his arms and his face; same with scratches, most of them being around his elbows. 

Ryan sat on his knees in front of him; he couldn't help but think back to when he watched Dallon go unconscious, being whacked a little too hard in the head by a pipe and then hitting the concrete uncontrollably. 

He moved Dallon’s head to view the right side, where his head hit the pavement, and he could definitely notice a red lump forming. The walls of the house dimmed in conjunction to Ryan’s troubled thoughts.

He got up and walked to the kitchen. He understood roughly what to do under these circumstances, since they had to deal with tending to wounds sometimes. Ryan started out by wetting a washcloth under the sink with water, getting it nice and cold. He grabbed some peroxide and big cotton balls from the upper cupboard above the sink, and some gauze from a small drawer at the edge of the counter. He thought that it would be easier to wrap Dal’s elbows in gauze than to cover them in band-aids. 

He went back into the living room to fix up Dallon. Ryan first put the cold cloth on his goose egg to reduce swelling; He had tried to wring out the cloth as much as possible without losing the cold, but a drop or two of water still dripped down Dallon’s face. 

Ryan then worked at the elbows. As Ryan applied peroxide to the scratches, Dallon didn't move an inch, he was out cold. The process of cleaning the wounds went by quickly, then gauzing up the elbows was a bit finicky since he wanted to make sure the bandages weren’t too tight. After wrapping up the first elbow, Ryan bent the elbow to see how far it could bend. Answer: Not that much without starting to feel a bit of resistance, but it wouldn't be too much of an issue for such a short time. 

Once he got the second elbow fitted with gauze, Ryan decided to clean his wounds too. He didn't have too many, and they were so small that he could just put a band-aid on them, but it was still important to clean. He hissed slightly as he pressed the peroxide-filled cotton ball to his scratches. He fixed himself up, and put away all the wound-tending supplies. 

He sat down with his back against the couch, looking up towards Dallon’s sleeping face. 

He wondered how long it would take for things to go back to normal around the area they were at. New York City was never usually a place where they would face violence, but I guess that time they took too many risks. It was better off that they didn't travel around that area for a while, even while they are touring. 

He felt his chest tighten slightly as tears welled at the corner of his eyes. It was hard enough that they were already under violence from people, now Dallon was unconscious, so he had no one to be comforted by. 

While he let tears from his eyes, he also took deep breaths. He shifted the colors in the room to baby blues and light greens, colors that always had a way to calm him down. He sat like that for a while, trying to calm down. 


	2. Nobody's Home

He was mostly awoken by the lights in the room, like the sun was shining in his eyes, but the sun's light was blue? He didn’t understand, and he didn't want to, quite frankly. 

He was in misery, his head thumped with his heartbeat and buzzed like it was clapped between two cymbals; his elbows felt tight with something wrapped around them. There was a cold, wet feeling against the right side of his head, and he felt some cold streaks going across the bridge of his nose and down his face. He touched the cold spot on his head and felt a cloth that was soaked with water.

He didn't know what was going on, where he was, what happened. He tried to think about what could be going on, maybe something from his memory that could give him a clue, but his head was too fuzzy and painful to be able to get anything from it. 

He was fed up with not knowing, so he opened his eyes. He was facing a back side of a couch, the one he was laid down against. He grabbed the cloth on the side of his head so that he could sit up properly. 

The fabric stuff wrapped around his elbows made it difficult for him to bend his arms, but it wasn't a huge struggle. 

Once he sat up, the glaring blue-green color of the walls made his head throb stronger. He squeezed his eyes shut, covering his eyes with his hand. 

“Hey,” A deep voice spoke up to his right side, sounding both surprised and softly comforting. There was a sound of fabric shifting next to him and he felt a hand against his back. 

He wanted to look at the person who was speaking, but the lights kept him from doing so. 

“What's wrong?” The person asked, and he responded “lights…” “Too bright?” They asked, he nodded. He heard a snap of fingers and the voice asked, “Better?” He opened his eyes and looked around, the rooms walls were now a darker color, more like a gray lavender. 

He looked at whoever was next to him, and it was another **guy** .  **His** hair was a very bright blue, the left side of it shaved off where the color was instead a brown-black.  **He** had on a mint green hoodie with a dark green dress shirt underneath. 

The thing that stood out the most were the  **man's** eyes, they were a very bright green, shining like LED’s; bright enough to glow in a dark room, accompanied by a lighter shade of green for a pupil. 

**His** expression shifted to concern, and the  **man** asked slowly “A-Are you okay?” He responded “I-I’m sorry, I don’t…” 

He didn't quite know how to respond. What to say? He certainly wasn’t okay, but boy would it be a hassle to explain. He looked down at his gut, the things wrapped around his elbows looked like gauze, protecting whatever injury he couldn't see from getting worse. He could feel a slight burning sensation on the ends of his elbows. 

The **guy** abruptly asked, “How’s your head? That fight knocked you out cold.” “I-It hurts a lot. ‘That fight?’” He responded, and the other **man's** eyebrows furrowed (and at some point **his** eyes had stopped glowing green, they now appeared to be more of a brown or a hazel). **He** replied, “Yeah, the-the fight we just had with a bunch of random rioters. Do you remember it?” “No?” He answered, more as a question than a response.

“What is the last thing you remember?” The  **man** asked, and there was a pause. 

He squinted, he couldn’t answer; he looked, but there was nothing. Nothing about this so-called ‘fight’ they did, nothing about the **guy** in front of him, nothing…

The  **guy** noticed his pause and expression, and  **he** muttered cautiously “Dallon?” That cut him out of his train of thought, that name. Who was Dallon, was it him? That would be the only way it would make sense in this context. It was a nice name, though, so that was good. 

“Dallon…” He said quietly, trying the name out on his tongue. The  **guy** backed up, putting a hand over  **his** mouth;  **he** whispered “Oh my god, you really don't remember.” “A-Am I supposed to?” Dallon asked, concerned. 

Tears formed in the  **man's** eyes as the wall’s colors shifted from a lavender to a burgundy. “I’m sorry! I’m sorry!” Dallon fumbled out after noticing the other  **guy** crying. “I didn’t mean to, I swear I-” He realized saying those things didn't help, the  **man** still cried anyways. 

He wondered what to do to actually help, so he shifted his legs off the couch and offered “Would you, uh… want a hug?”  **He** shook his head as  **he** curled into  **himself** more,  **he** attempted to mumble out something but it came out too muffled and incoherent. “Okay…” Dallon responded, unsure of anything else to do; so he just sat there. 


	3. That's the Trade for Everyone you Know

After a bit of time had passed, Ryan got back his composure. He knew something was off from the get go, Dallon wasn’t acting the same; More reserved and anxious. As he calmed down and started to take deep breaths, his hiccups started up; Great. He looked up at Dallon, the latter of which had his face rested in his right hand, placed over his cheek. When he noticed Ryan looking at him, he lifted his head up. They were silent for a minute, but Ryan spoke up first, mumbling “I’m sorry,” “I-It’s okay,” Dallon responded, scooting over and then patted the part of the couch next to him. Ryan nodded, getting up from the uncomfortable floor and sitting on the couch, and hiccupped.

“Okay, uh…” Dallon started, wondering what to ask. “I was just-I don’t know what’s going on. Can you please fill me in?” Ryan nodded, starting with “Well, first off. I’m Ryan, both of us are friends and…” He paused, trying to figure out what to say, or rather, what _not_ to say. He decided to just reply “We are in a- *Hic* band, just a small Alt. Pop band, nothing big.” He thought to himself that if he didn’t let it slip that Dallon has powers, and if Ryan never shows his, they might be able to avoid any potential issues until Dallon would get his memories back.

“Mmm, got it. You mentioned a fight? What was that about?” Ryan tried his best to come up with a fudged answer again. “Some people...hate our music, think we are awful. Sometimes *hic* haters end up turning into rioters, and we get beat up. You ended up getting knocked out and I had to get you back here.” “Geez, that seems harsh. Can’t they just leave us well alone?” “I wish, but they don’t.” Ryan slightly chuckled, despite the lie he was being truthful in that statement. It was always a struggle to ensure they were safe, it was never something easy to do. After that conversation came a long pause, both of them completely unsure of what to talk about. Ryan's hiccups managed to stop, giving him a feeling of relief. Ryan commented, “What now?” “I don’t know,” Dallon acknowledged, but added “Maybe we can go out somewhere?” “Where?” “Depends, where did we like to go? Shops, restaurants, music places.” “Actually, yeah.” Ryan responded “I have an idea. We have a fun club we like to go to after we release albums and stuff like that.” Dallon squinted, “Okay, but will there be flashing lights? I’ve been getting headaches from bright lights, I don’t think-” Dallon was interrupted by Ryan who reassured him “Nah, there's usually no bright lights, it’ll be fine.”

“Got it, so are we going right now?” “Why not? Unless you’d rather wait for a bit.” Ryan retorted, but Dallon replied “No, I’ll be good. Let’s go.” Ryan helped Dallon off of the couch. Dallon stretched, and as they walked to the middle of the living room, Ryan grabbed his hand, “Prepare, this is gonna get crazy.” Before Dallon could ask, Ryan opened a portal, immediately jumping into it. Dallon screamed as they wooshed aggressively through the wormhole-type tunnel they were speeding through. It took a few seconds before they were out of it. Ryan made sure to catch Dallon as he tumbled out of the portal, knowing he would be disoriented. Dallon mumbled some stuff before concisely saying “What-What was that??” “Portals! Pretty fun right? It’s how we travel easily to places.” Ryan had to hope that Dallon wouldn't question absolutely everything just from that, but judging by Dallon’s confused look on his face yet complete silence, he was too freaked out to ask anything.

They had appeared in an alleyway on the street of the club. This club was in Salt Lake City in Utah; It was one of the few cities both Dallon and Ryan love, not to mention they don’t visit it too often as to not spoil their love of it. If people there start to figure out who they are they might not be able to come back for a while. They walked out of the alleyway, and into the open street. It was just starting to become dusk and the warmth left over from the spring afternoon was starting to go away. Ryan looked left and right, trying to look for the club on the streets. He recognized the sub shop down the right side, so he knew to walk that direction to find the club. They started walking as Dallon asked Ryan, “What do we like about this club?” “Usually they play the music we like, but also we’ve done a lot of fun things there and it’s just a fun place to unwind.” Ryan made a special effort of lying, avoiding the most obvious reason why they went to that club, it was difficult to do, but he was apparently a good liar as Dallon didn’t even blink at the response.

They made their way down the street, having to cross it to get on the side of the road that it was on, but they soon made their way into Tanner’s Bar and Club.


	4. Marquees with your Name in Lights

They opened the doors to Tanner’s Bar and Club, and Dallon took a gander at what was all around there. The areas closed to the walls were lined with pillars, framing the dance floor. The far left wall, though, didn't have pillars because there was a long bar that many people were already hitting up. At the moment, an old 60s jazz song was being played, nothing Ryan would recognize (And Dallon wouldn't either since he didn't know anything). The lights, though, were a bit of an eyesore. They weren’t strobing by any means, but they were bright; It did give Dallon some thumping in his temples. It was bearable for the time being though.

They walked into the dance floor, the last song that was playing just finished up, and a new song started playing, one that Ryan definitely knew. “Ooh! I love this song!” Ryan grabbed both of Dallon's hands, moving them back and forth rhythmically. The lights started glowing magenta and purple, making Ryan’s outfit look interesting with the clash of colors. Dallon blushed, a small smile appearing on his face. He mirrored Ryan's movement, also getting into it. They added a few smaller movements like moving the feet, but other than that they kept with that same general movement. Ryan was singing along to the chorus, and once Dallon understood the words he started singing too. After the song finished up, they laughed gently; Giggling at their playfulness.

The person DJ-ing the music spoke through the intercom, it was pretty staticky so a lot of it was hard to understand, something along the lines of “Request...songs we don't play often, … flashing lights.” Dallon didn’t quite catch all of the message either as he was still caught in his ecstatic haze, but by the time he understood, they had started playing it. The music started, loud and thumping with many electronic sounds. The strobe lights immediately clicked on too, kicking in Dallon’s headaches. It felt like he was being stabbed in the temples and at the back of the eyes. He couldn't move because of the pain, he could only squeeze his eyes shut and cover his ears with his hands. Ryan attempted to yell a question at him, but Dallon couldn’t hear. He ended up squatting down, trying to make himself farther away from the noise. He wanted it to stop.

He felt something radiate off of him and suddenly, the music stopped. People started murmuring around, wondering what happened. A few gasps here and there, people surprised by something Dallon couldn't see; the lights were still too bright, he didn't want to open his eyes. Ryan asked him, “What's wrong? Are you okay?” Dallon whimpered, unable to answer. It clicked for Ryan what was bothering him, he murmured out “It’s the lights...” Soon after that, Ryan's instincts kicked in and all the lights went down, his powers automatically turning them off. Dallon was able to open his eyes now, and he instantly noticed something strange. There was a soft blue light all around him, and it made the whole room around him just look blue, except for something else. When he looked at Ryan, he noticed that there was a soft blue-green light surrounding him: His sweatshirt, his hair, his eyes all radiated combinations of green and light blue.

Dallon's mind started racing, his breathing becoming more labored; He was glowing, Ryan was glowing. Humans don’t glow, right? _They aren’t human_. Ryan mumbled “Dallon?” Dallon looked around the club, everyone was looking at them, mesmerized. Dallon shook his head and got up, running out of the building. He needed to get away, he didn’t know where, but he needed space, somewhere private. He needed to _get out_. He ran down an alley and saw a door in the middle of the road, attached to nothing. He curiously opened it, only to notice a white hallway in it that he couldn't see from the other side of the door. He didn’t care enough to think about it, he just needed somewhere to go. He shut the door behind him when he walked in and the door disappeared behind him. There were doors down that hall, but they were far away so he decided to lean against the wall, sit down, and cry. He didn’t understand what was happening, it wasn’t normal, it wasn’t human.

He just didn’t understand…


	5. The Blinking Lights are Breaking Bones

Ryan had tried to follow Dallon as he ran away, but by the time he got out of the club, Dallon was nowhere to be seen. He paced the sidewalk in front of the place, his thoughts racing. Who knows where Dallon went, and what could happen to him. If he exposes his powers anywhere else, he could get in a lot more trouble. It was unsafe no matter where they went, but Dallon didn’t have any experience in keeping himself safe. They were lucky that no one had immediately started attacking them or worse. Ryan decided the best course of action was to check for him first at the house, maybe in the Interdimensional Hallway, and then work the rest out from there. He made his portal and jumped into it.

As he arrived, he rushed to the door and looked around. The walls glowed red and orange under Ryan’s panic, his mood influencing the color shifts. He looked everywhere in the house, their bedrooms, the living room, kitchen, their studies; Dallon was nowhere to be seen. ‘Damnit!’ Ryan thought. He ran out of the house, going through the door that was about 10 yards away. The door led right into the Interdimensional Hallway, the strongest connective string from the Earth to the realm that they all lived in. It wasn't as much used for going between the Earth and their dimension, but more for others to communicate and connect. The walls went from a lavender-magenta combination to a stark white as you got closer to the Earth. Ryan first scoped down the left side of the hall, the part where more rooms were. Once he could tell that Dallon wasn't down that way, he made his way the other direction. He was trying to figure out what to do if he didn't find Dallon here, but just a couple of feet away from the end of the hall, he noticed a figure sitting down against the wall to Ryan’s left, head in it’s lap and curled into a ball. After a few seconds, he could clearly see that it was Dallon.

Ryan made his way over, sitting down next to him. Dallon either acted like he didn't notice Ryan next to him, or genuinely didn't know. Ryan spoke up, asking “Hey… Are you doing okay?” Dallon lifted his head up from his lap, shifting it so that he was facing Ryan. His expression was neutral, but his eyes were red and his cheeks were pink. The denim on his jeans had small, pin-sized darker blue stains sparkling it. He remained silent. “I understand this must be weird for you, I-” “What are we?” Dallon asked, and Ryan looked toward him curiously. “We can’t be human. Humans don’t _glow_. Humans can't modify sound and color with their _mind_. What are we then, if we’re not human?” Dallon explained his question, reiterating it at the end. Ryan sighed, looking down at the floor. He replied, “Well, we are human, to some extent. Do you remember the concept of muses?” Dallon shook his head. “They are a Greek myth,” Ryan explained, “A cause of creativity and inspiration, putting a name and face to a natural process. We are like muses, sort of.”

“We are human born, both coming from human families, but we ended up being different. When a muse dies, usually around the same age as humans, a human is picked from humanity to fill that spot. Sometimes it's of people who were just born, sometimes people who are older; Usually based on whoever is the partner muse at the time. When I was around 6, the muse of color had died and I took his place. My family could tell, because my eyes would always glow a green when I was happy, or excited. I’d also glow green physically when I was using my power to some extent, whether it be turning down the lights in a room, being inspired by scenery or greenery, or if I were using my color skills to make a drawing. It’s actually how I could tell that something was wrong when you woke up, I shined my eyes green. Usually eye-glowing is a way of communicating non-verbally, like body language. You didn’t shine yours back, telling me that something wasn’t quite right.” Dallon nodded, understanding what that was about. Ryan continued, “I don't know much about how you came to find out about your powers, but I had heard that you got your powers at around age 19, just when you were starting out college.”

“Muses main jobs are to inspire people, mainly in whatever aspirations they are working in. My inspirational output focuses a lot on aesthetics so photography, drawing, and anything that involves combining colors and making something look aesthetically pleasing. Yours, since your output is music, focuses a lot on musicians. What sounds right, chord progressions, melody. The best way for muses to work is in their own workspace, so that's where this place comes in. When we became muses, we suddenly got access to this new world, this other dimension that we could go to; Accessing it through portals or doors. We, Music and Color Muses, share the same house since there's such an aesthetic association between the two, especially when considering music-to-color synesthesia. So we met just after you had gotten your power, you were running away from something and you stumbled through a portal you made, and appeared at the house. I had heard you appear outside, as I was just reorganizing the house. I had to introduce you to the world I had been living in for a while, you just couldn’t process it. Once we got into a routine, you got used to it, and we were an inseparable duo. I never got along well with the previous music muse, besides them being like a caretaker to me, but I did with you. We decided to form a band, making sure not to use our power in any way during the concerts, but definitely while workshopping the songs and music videos.”

Dallon had been looking down the whole time that Ryan was talking, sometimes making eye contact whenever Ryan had looked at him. When Ryan had paused for a bit, he asked “So...the fight you talked about before was…?” He didn't have to finish the sentence for Ryan to understand what Dallon was asking. He replied “Yeah, sometimes we uncontrollably use our powers in public, usually by instinct, but when people see us… they aren’t always kind about it. We were lucky to not have been immediately pummeled back at that club, not so lucky the previous time. People… don’t like to take kindly to things they don't understand, so they attack…” Dallon interrupted, “You said before that we are humans though, just different, so why don't they think that?” “Becoming a muse is rare. There is always usually a total of 16 muses, some get made though if a creative decision is made and it doesn't fall under any other muse. Some didn’t even speak English coming here, so running into a muse in real life is rare. We always see each other through here, the Interdimensional Hallway, but that's not the case for regular humans. Some people understand the concept of muses and take kindly, some know about us from biased news and choose to demonize us, some don’t know us but think we are some sort of alien creature.” “How do muses get chosen?” Dallon asked, changing subjects. Ryan answered, “Usually, it’s when the person is extravagant in that subject, but sometimes it’s just random. For me, it was random. I never had an eye for colors, photography, coloring, the like until I became a muse. Then again, I barely remember much before that time. You would say that you always played music as a hobby, but listened to it like a lifestyle.”

“All of this…” Dallon started, “I-It sounds amazing, fantastical even, but…” He paused, curling into himself a bit more. He gripped his jeans as he stuttered out, “I-I don’t want it.” Tears welled in his eyes. “I just want a normal life, not a life of fear or with this huge… responsibility.” Ryan looked at him with an ounce of melancholy, understanding where Dallon was coming from. He leaned back against the wall responding “I understand, It’s never been easy, it’s always been both a balancing act and a rollercoaster. I don't blame you for feeling like that.” He paused, looking over to Dallon. The latter had several tears falling down his cheeks now, and he looked ready to break. Ryan asked, “Do you want a hug?” He held out his arms welcomingly. Dallon nodded, collapsing into his hug. “I need one re-eally bad” he mumbled, allowing himself to empty all his emotions. He wrapped his arms around Ryan's torso, who didn’t mind the sudden embrace. As Dallon cried, Ryan reassured him, “I… I promise that no matter how you feel, now or later, if you ever remember what life was like before, and whatever trouble we get in next, I will be here to help you and make sure you will be okay. I’m not leaving, I swear.” He rubbed Dallon’s back, doing the best he could in this situation. He never really knew what to do besides the cheesy statements and calming touches. Then again, maybe that's all it really took. It was certainly working for Dallon since after a couple minutes, he was much calmer, not sobbing anymore.

He sat up, rubbing his eyes free from tiredness that crying always brought. “Feeling better?” Ryan asked softly. Dallon nodded with a slight grin on his face. “Yeah, thanks.” “It’s no problem.” Ryan responded as he got up from where he was sitting, doing a slight stretch. “What do you want to do next?” He asked, arms stretched out to Dallon to help him get up. Dallon accepted the help and said, “Go anywhere but a place with loud noise and bright lights,” chuckling afterward. Ryan made a small ‘hm’ sound, “Well if you’re okay with going outside again, I think I know the place!” Dallon responded that he was cool with it, and they were off. A door appeared in the same place it disappeared last time. Ryan opened the door first, allowing Dallon to walk through it first.


	6. Curse All Your Spells

This time, the town they walked into was brighter. It was a bit earlier in the day, so they were definitely closer west than before. Ryan commented, “Welcome to San Marcos! I know a coffee shop down a couple of blocks that we love going to. It's nice and chill, so we can just chat there a while.” They walked away from the backside of the building onto the sidewalk next to it. Dallon took a gander at the sights. They were at the part of town that had a lot of restaurants, but you could clearly see how the area behind it was filled with suburban houses. The heat was a bit of an inconvenience, even in comparison to Salt Lake City, it was warm. He decided to take off his bomber jacket, tying it around his waist. I guess it didn't help, though, that he had on a navy blue shirt; It did nothing to fight against the heat. They made their way down the block, walking on the sidewalks against the shops.

The Café wasn't as far of a walk as Dallon figured it would be, only being a block or two away from where they appeared. They walked in, looking around. It was a small, cozy little place; No bigger than a classroom but no smaller than a kitchen. A few tables were scattered sporadically throughout the place, and at the very front of the cafe was a counter to order at. When they walked up there, Ryan asked Dallon “Would you want to have a drink that you always have?” Dallon nodded, replying “S-Sure! Sounds good.” They walked up to the waitress taking the orders, and Ryan said, “We’ll have one hazelnut cream coffee and a sweetened green tea.” The waitress nodded and got to making their order. When it was finished and the waitress gave them their drinks, they took a seat. It was at a table in the far corner, farther away from any people sitting down at the café; a perfect place to have a private conversation. Immediately after settling down, Dallon started asking more questions.

“So, how does our job work? How do we, like, inspire people?” “Well,” Ryan started, taking a quick sip of his tea. “Usually we manage them as they come in; Papers will appear on our desk, and we brainstorm a solution. When we get one, we write it down on the paper and the person gets the idea.” Dallon hummed softly. “Do we ever work with other muses?” He asked. “Oh, absolutely!” Ryan responded, “Above everyone else, the Acting muse. They help us a lot with music videos too.” “What type of music do we make?” “Sorta…” Ryan paused, thinking about the easiest way to describe it. “Alt. Pop, modern day 80s and 90s synth pop, we bounce between 15 different genres so it’s a bit hard to define.” Dallon giggled at that, “Must be very unique if it's almost undefinable. Maybe we can listen to some of it when we get back to the house.” Dallon looked down at his coffee, and Ryan smiled. “Yeah... that sounds great.” He replied in an awestruck tone.

Dallon, as he observed his coffee, figured that at this point it was cool enough to drink. Little to no steam was coming off of it and it had been a couple minutes since they had gotten their drinks. He cautiously picked up the plastic cup, the outside of it still felt warm to him. He took a sip. The taste of the coffee sent with it’s sweet scent a wave of memories washed over him, every second of his life reactivating itself in his head. He gasped, and ended up breathing in some coffee. He briskly set the coffee down and pointed his head away from Ryan as he started coughing. Ryan looked at him concerned, asking “Did you choke on your coffee?” Dallon couldn't respond, as he was too busy choking on his coffee. His eyes, though, glowed; A fierce blue, trying to flag Ryan’s attention, to tell him he was there.

Ryan noticed when Dallon opened his eyes for a split second that his eyes looked different, they were glowing. Ryan got up from his seat and squatted down in front of Dallon, having his eyes glowing too. “Dallon?” Ryan asked, a tinge of hope rising up from his stomach. Dallon opened his eyes again, and they were most definitely glowing. He felt as Dallon made eye contact with him that he was telling Ryan something. Something that he hoped he wasn't misconstruing, so he stuttered out, “Y-You really… You’re back??” Dallon still couldn’t talk with the coffee burning his throat, but he squinted his eyes and nodded. Tears that were trapped in Dallon's eyes suddenly were forced down his cheeks and fell quickly. Ryan made a sound that was a mix between a sigh and a sob, both being how he wanted to react. Tears also blurred his vision as he went in to give Dallon a big hug. They sat there like that for what seemed like millennia, enjoying the lack of a gap, both physical and mental, between them. Once Dallon’s throat stopped burning, he started giggling, such a sweet, emotional laugh filled with joy and relief. He hugged Ryan a little tighter, enjoying the embrace. They eventually parted slightly, still keeping physical contact with each other in some way. Dallon asked emotionally, “Can we go back home?” Ryan chuckled, nodding boldly. They grabbed their drinks, both of them in travelable cups, and they walked out of the place, still interlocked in each other's arms.


	7. Good Old Fashioned Razzmatazz

Dallon woke the next morning in his room, finding once again all his memories in place. It was strange now, all of his memories were there but due to the brief lapse in having them, they felt different. As he remembered them, all the emotions from those times got projected onto him, every single moment. That small difference made all his memories feel fresh, like they just happened. I guess that was a good thing in this context. The day Dallon met Ryan feels as new as the day they decided to form a band, and the day that they filmed their latest music video; It was something else, for sure. He sat up in his bed, looking about his room. All of his stuff was still in its place, nothing different from two days ago. He found peace in that simple detail, something was different but something else stayed the same. He shook that emo thought out of his head and got ready for the day: Taking a quick shower, getting dressed, applying some band-aids to unhealed scratches, brushing his teeth and his hair.

As he walked downstairs, he heard music playing distantly from somewhere below him. Once he got to the bottom of the stairs, he could tell it was coming from the living room. He walked in and recognized the music as their own, being their first album. The album was spinning on the vinyl player, a nice opaque orange. The second to last song just finished up and Razzmatazz started playing. Colors bubbled and floated around the vinyl player like a windows screensaver, colors that Dallon understood as ones that Ryan associated with the songs; He was clearly within earshot of the music. Dallon sat down on the couch, turning up the music with his powers to the point where it was echoing throughout the room; The colors floated around the room with it. After a few seconds,

He saw some movement to his left side. Looking over, he immediately recognized the slim, tall figure by the wall frame as Ryan. Dallon smiled gently at him, and Ryan walked over; Sitting next to Dallon. Once he sat down, he leaned against Dallon softly, his head on Dallon’s shoulder. Dallon accepted Ryan’s leaning invite, wrapping his arm around the blue-haired man. There was an understanding in their silence: That Dallon having back all his memories is both a blessing and a curse. It was great that they didn’t have to start from square one, but it came with it all the attacks and discrimination they faced. Dallon silently decided, though, that it was better this way; at least he understood everything and could get back to how things were. For now, they were safe, they were home. The lyrics continued to echo in the room, soft melodies so sweet and so sentimental.

“Let’s go paint the town on our way home…”

**Author's Note:**

> First fanfiction I'm putting on here. Feel free to critique in the comments since I'm still working on becoming a better writer :)


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